Leann Laframboise and Marlene Lee from the Sudbury Catholic District School Board were honoured to be two of twenty-six teachers in Canada to be chosen by Apple Canada this year to be named an Apple Distinguished Educator. They join their colleague, Jennifer Connelly, who became an ADE last year. They are three of 86 teachers in Canada to hold this title. They join the approximately 1400 ADEs across the world who share and have access to the knowledge, tips and expertise the members post on the Apple Distinguished Educator community site. Teachers are required to submit a video of how they use technology in the classroom as part of the application process. All three attended the Apple Institute held in Ottawa from July 2nd to July 5th, 2010. Here they were given the chance to attend sessions on the use of technology in the classroom, listen to motivational speakers and to meet other ADEs across Canada. All three teachers are even more excited about integrating technology into their classrooms next year.
Category: Technology
Technology Showcased at St. Francis
Sudbury Catholic District School Board Trustee Estelle Scappatura stopped by St. Francis Catholic Elementary School recently. She was invited to join teacher Lyanne Marion’s Grade 5/6 French Immersion class as they worked with Tina Timpano, a Sudbury Catholic Teacher Integration Mentor teacher. The class was learning how to use different programs like Comic Life on the macbook as well as incorporating different technology like the ipod and digital video cameras into the classroom. Trustee Scappatura was amazed at how well the students could utilize the technology and was quite proud of their accomplishments!
Communications Co-op Student “On the Job”!
Dubinia Nieforth is a grade 12 student at Marymount Academy and is contemplating a future in marketing, advertising and public relations. When she approached her guidance teacher Brenda Thompson, the two discussed the possibility of a co-op placement that would allow her the opportunity to try out these types of jobs to see if it would be a good fit. After talking it over with her co-op teacher, Allison Simspon, Dubinia was offered the opportunity to work with the Communications Team at the Sudbury Catholic District School Board. When asked why she chose co-op, Dubinia replied that she “felt that she was ready to try some work in a real career field and preferred out-going, social situations rather than sitting in a class. By getting out and experiencing what (she) was interested in sounded like an amazing opportunity.” Dubinia has been documenting her experiences and the stories she has been covering in her own newsletter. She has also had the opportunity to learn new software on the macbook including Pages and GarageBand which will be great experience for her when looking at advertising and graphic design. Already Dubina has helped with the celebration for the United Kingdom visitors as well as visiting schools with the communications team to learn about covering events and media relations. For the remainder of the year, Nieforth will be th “eyes and ears” for Marymount keeping on top of all of the stories as well as continuing to assist the team with future marketing and Sudbury Catholic promotions and events. Dubinia is looking forward to her future assignments and exploring all of the possibilities that her new co-op placement will offer her as she wants her career to involve “ideas, writing, working with people and getting to be creative – this is just the perfect fit!”
St. Albert Business Program Showcases Student Projects
Over the last several weeks, the participants of the brand new Business Program at St. Albert Adult Learning Centre have been working hard to identify and refine both their verbal and non-verbal communication skills. In order to demonstrate their new understanding of the subtle differences in non-verbal communication, each group created and videotaped two different mock interview scenarios. The scenarios were intended to demonstrate the subtleties between effective and ineffective body language and tone of voice during job interviews and were premiered on March 2, 2010 for several students and school staff. Tina Timpano, one of the Sudbury Catholic Teacher Integration Mentor teachers had visited the classroom over the past few months to assist the students with their video editing on imovie on the macbooks. The students were very enthusiastic about diving into the task of editing their movies in order to create polished, professional looking presentations for their projects. Jill Ospina, the Business teacher at the school felt that the integration of technology as well as the learning of practical hands-on real life skills will allow her students to be successful when it comes times for them to enter the workforce. “For many of the students, this project forced them to come out of their shell and experience real life situations that will benefit them for real job interview opportunities.” said Ospina. “ They have come a long way in a really short amount of time with this project and I am really proud of them.” Cassandra MacGregor, Vice-Principal of the school was thrilled that the students were pleased with the new program at the school. “ The students are earning credits towards their high school diploma as well as receiving specialized training to assist them when they enter the business world – it is a win-win situation for them.” Two of the students that presented their project, Francine Dubreuil and Peghan Verkuil were nervous but enthusiastic about their project being showcased to the other students. “We were really overwhelmed at first with this project,” said Dubreuil “but it has been a lot of fun and we have definitely learned a lot about business and technology. “ Peghan Verkuil also shared similar sentiments. “It definitely has been a lot of work, but in the end it paid off as it was a great experience to prepare us for the future.”
Pilot Apple Technology Project Huge Success for St. David’s Grade Fives
The Grade 5 students were so excited they could hardly sit still as their St. David teacher Jennifer Gran asked them to open their macbooks and turn on their ipods. Gran along with Leann Laframboise, one of the Sudbury Catholic Technology Integration Mentor Teachers had put together a proposal and submitted it to Apple Canada with the hopes that the Grade 5 class would be selected to pilot a technology project. Luckily, the two teachers’ proposal was selected out of the hundreds of proposals submitted from across Canada. Apple selected Gran’s class which allowed the students the use of ten MacBook computers with wireless connectivity, digital still and video cameras, and iLife ’09, Apple’s award-winning digital media software as well as ten ipods. For the last four weeks, the class has created podcasts, comics, digital stories, movies and posters. As well, the students used ipods for different activities such as reading, navigating apps and browsers and literacy and numeracy games. Gran was thrilled that her class had the opportunity to have some really hands on learning time with the provided technology. “If you have a high number of identified students, the technology really levels the playing field in regards to learning. “said Gran. “The technology gives the students many different options for learning. They don’t all learn the same way and with the macbooks and ipods, they can choose the way they learn most effectively, which makes teaching easier for the teacher.” For each different activity, the students were divided into groups and sat down with either Gran or Laframboise to consult on their projects. All of the students got the opportunity to use both pieces of technology daily. After St. David’s, the next school to receive the kit will be St. Francis Catholic Elementary School which was also one of the schools to be selected from across Canada.
Teachers Getting Even “Smarter” with the Smartboard
The Sudbury Catholic District School Board Technology Integration Mentors (T.I.M.’s) have been very busy the last few months inservicing our teachers in Smartboard training. Every elementary teacher who currently has a Smartboard in their classroom has been receiving Smartboard inservicing to help them better use this unique technology. Jennifer Connelly, one of the SCDSB T.I.M’s teachers said that by February 12, 2010, all of these elementary teachers at our board who have a Smartboard will be Level 1 certified trained.
Technology Integration Mentors Present “Technology in the 21st Century” to the District Regional Steering Committee
Two of our veteran Sudbury Catholic District School Board’s Technology Integration Mentors (T.I.M’s), Jennifer Connelly and Leann Houle-Laframboise were asked to present “Technology in the 21’st Century” to the District Regional Steering Committee on December 1, 2009. The Steering Committee is comprised of teams from all of the Northeastern Ontario School Boards. This group gathers together approximately two times a year to share best practices and often invite guest speakers to discuss current educational trends. Both Jennifer and Leann felt it was important to share Sudbury Catholic’s vision of the 21’st century learner and to showcase how our board is helping lead the way in this shift of focus.
St. Andrew Catholic School Council Supports Technology
St. Andrew Catholic School Council has been working very hard to raise funds to support their school. The parent council has been volunteering their time at bingos to raise money for the students to enhance already existing programs. At their last parent council meeting in June, the council approved the purchase of ten new Mac Books to add to the school’s technology. The school recently received the new Mac Books and Melody Henry, Principal of St. Andrew’s is thrilled with their arrival. “I am so excited for the students.” stated Henry. ” When I see the children working with the Mac’s, they are really engaged and excited!”
Sudbury Catholic Schools Continues to Champion Technology for Students
In a move to further support student success, Sudbury Catholic Schools are creating greater opportunities for students and teachers to learn through technology in the classroom. The school board recently strengthened its commitment to help students learn in ways meaningful to them with the addition of Technology Integration Mentors (TIMs). The TIM teachers will support classroom teachers and students to use technology in ways that enhance lesson planning, delivery and ultimately student learning and achievement.
Already, each student in Grades seven and eight receives a MacBook laptop as part of Sudbury Catholic Schools lead in promoting effective use of technology in student learning. In addition to the expansion of the TIM staff who will support teachers and students use of laptops, the Board has also purchased iPods, digital cameras and other tools to explore and create learning that responds to individual students’ ways of learning and expressing themselves.
Sarah Falvo, a Grade 8 student at Marymount Academy, says the laptop technology has provided her with greater ways of understanding and demonstrating her learning to her teacher and classmates. “I have been using the laptops since Grade 7 and really enjoy working with them,” states Falvo. “The laptops allow us to be creative and to try new things which makes the lessons fun… we can edit our journals and essays easily in English, produce lab reports and take tests in Science and work with mathematical formulas and quizzes which are directly related to our Grade 8 Math curriculum.”
Greg Huneault, a TIM teacher, says that with effective planning and use, “the technology ultimately responds to each student’s needs and interests, and engages the student where he or she is. “When we talk of classroom technology, it helps to understand its role in providing support to each student and teacher. With our MacBook program, for instance, every student in grades 7 and 8 uses software that allows them to create podcasts, multimedia presentations such as movies with voice-overs, music, and other products. The range of technology grabs the interest and natural talent of each student, and he or she typically becomes more engaged and interested in finding ways to learn and share the learning.” Students in grades 4 and 5 use iBook laptops for similar purposes to create projects in all subjects. SMARTBoards are another tool Sudbury Catholic Schools have recently purchased for all classrooms in grades 5/6 to 8. The interactive boards allow teachers to design and deliver lessons to further engage students. Images from a laptop are projected onto the white board, which responds to a teacher’s or student’s touch that allows everyone to manipulate words and shapes on the large white screens, so students can better see and understand concepts. For example, students can observe and experiment instantly with how an object changes shape as its measurements change, or move parts of a sentence around quickly to see how meaning is changed. In Science class, concepts using video and virtual exploration of body parts can help students better understand in real life how systems work together in ways textbooks and chalk cannot.
Some secondary classrooms also use the interactive white boards, which are placing 21st Century learning technology ahead of traditional blackboards.